


How Do You Do It?

by Spideyfan62



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: And May Is There To Give Her One, F/M, Hurt Peter Parker, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Michelle Jones Needs a Hug, POV Michelle Jones, Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home, This Can't Be Good For Me, metaphorically speaking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27205435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spideyfan62/pseuds/Spideyfan62
Summary: "Don't you dare give up on me," M.J. said through gritted teeth, fighting back tears as she squeezed his hand harder. She could feel all her walls beginning to come down at once, their foundations giving way. Peter was one of the few good things she had in this world, and she wasn't about to just let him slip away without a fight. If death was going to take him tonight, it would have to go through her first.She heard the door open behind her, indicating May was likely back. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes, resuming her stone faced look as she turned to face the woman."Here," May said, handing her a Styrofoam cup full of warm coffee."Thanks," M.J. said as she took the cup from her.
Relationships: Michelle Jones & May Parker (Spider-Man), Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	How Do You Do It?

**Author's Note:**

> In this story: M.J. gets some gentle wisdom from May on how to deal with Peter's near death experiences while they wait for him to wake up.

M.J. caught herself tapping the floor with her foot, cutting off the action immediately. She had always hated when other people performed the annoying motion, so she wasn't about to stoop to that level, regardless of her present circumstances. Granted, those present circumstances involved sitting in a hospital room next to one unconscious Peter Parker, her far too brave for his own good boyfriend who happened to be Spider-Man. During his latest battle with the worst villain NYC had to offer, a dangerous chemical was accidentally released in the building he was in. Being the noble hero and person he was, Peter had made sure that the innocent civilians trapped in the building got out first, breathing in a great deal of the chemical in the process. He had barely made it out of the building enough to be seen and promptly escorted to the hospital. Having seen the whole thing on T.V, she quickly made her way to the hospital too. 

M.J. got up from her seat next to Peter's bedside, needing to expend at least a little of her built up nervous energy. 

"Michelle, are you okay?" May asked from the other side of the room. She was already there when M.J. made it herself, but insisted that she could stay as well. 

"Yeah, I'm okay," M.J. replied. If she was honest with herself, that was the farthest thing from true right now, but she refused to even think it. 

"I'm gonna grab some coffee," May said. Even though M.J.'s eyes were trained on Peter's unconscious and still form, she could tell the woman was already on her wait out. "You want some?" 

"Sure, that'll be fine," M.J. said, still refusing eye contact. After she heard the door close behind her, she walked up closer to Peter's side. He was hooked up to various machines, each one monitoring a specific one of his vitals. From the most recent update from the doctors, they said his enhanced healing factor was doing everything it could, but a large part of it was going to be up to his will to fight it. 

"Come on, Peter," she said, slowly sitting down on his bedside and softly taking one of his hands in her own. "Fight this." M.J. knew when she had started dating Peter several months ago that there would be times like this where she would need to be strong for him, which was something she had been used to her whole life. It was something she learned by having to be the most mature person in her family a lot of the time as her loved ones often fought it out. She had had to take the initiative in so much, and these experiences had hardened her, strengthened her to the point where she felt nothing could tear her walls down, that nothing could beat her. But she was seemingly in for a rude awakening, and frankly, it had been a long time coming. Peter's identity had been outed to the world less than a week into their relationship, with him being framed for murder to boot. Through it all, she had stuck by his side, though it hadn't been easy, but they had finally started picking up the pieces when this happened. 

"Don't you dare give up on me," M.J. said through gritted teeth, fighting back tears as she squeezed his hand harder. She could feel all her walls beginning to come down at once, their foundations giving way. Peter was one of the few good things she had in this world, and she wasn't about to just let him slip away without a fight. If death was going to take him tonight, it would have to go through her first. 

She heard the door open behind her, indicating May was likely back. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes, resuming her stone faced look as she turned to face the woman. 

"Here," May said, handing her a Styrofoam cup full of warm coffee. 

"Thanks," M.J. said as she took the cup from her. In the months of craziness she had gone through recently, May had emerged as the mother figure she never had, at least in her own mind. She didn't know how close May thought they were, but M.J. deeply admired the older woman's strength, compassion, and love. She wanted to lean on her, to ask her for advice on how to deal with this, given that she had clearly done it before. The problem was, M.J. wasn't exactly a pro at these kinds of things. It had taken a myriad of unusual circumstances (and that was saying something for their lives) for her to confess her feelings to Peter, who fortunately reciprocated them in spades. That experiences alone hadn't magically made her issues with being upfront about her deeper feelings go away though. 

She waited for May to ask her again if she was okay, but instead the older woman took her seat next to Peter's bedside. The fact that May was giving her space and allowing her to be the one to ask for help made it both easier and scarier at the same time. May had asked, she had dug her heels, and now she was leaving the ball in her court. She wanted to be strong for Peter, and to her, that meant not showing any weakness. 

M.J. observed May from her position standing next to Peter's bed. The woman seemed calm, still. Most intriguingly, her eyes seemed to say so much. There was a weariness to them, likely from both losing her husband and nearly losing her nephew on several occasions. There was concern and fear, but there was also strength and steadfastness, a determination the likes of which M.J. had hardly seen before. She turned away, looking back to Peter. Every beep of a machine started to ring louder in her ears. Her heartbeat sped up at the thought of the worst happening. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment, causing her to let out an inadvertent gasp. 

She felt May's look of concern on her now; she met the woman's eyes momentarily. Her she was, her nephew's life hanging in the balance, and now that concern was turned towards her instead. M.J. turned away for a moment, walking towards the window on the far side of the room. She sat down her coffee, fearing that the caffeine within it would only make her nervous energy even worse. 

"How do you do it?" she blurted out before she even realized the words left her mouth. Strangely, it felt like at least a small bit of weight was off her shoulders just by asking. 

There was a moment of silence, perhaps contemplation, before May responded: "It's hard. Really hard, but you learn how to handle it."

M.J. turned to May, who was giving her a gracious look, one that told her she understood where she was coming from. She walked over to the older woman, squatting down as she approached the chair she was sitting in. 

"How?" M.J. asked, practically pleading for answers at this point. "How do you do it?"

May sighed, setting her coffee down on a small table next to them. She then leaned forward slightly, her gaze piercing through M.J.'s armor. 

"Michelle," she began softly, "when I first found out about Peter, what he was doing, I begged him to stop. I shouted at him, I even threatened to ground him, but he said it wouldn't stop him. When I asked him why he was doing this..." May paused, getting a little choked up. The memories of whatever she was about to say clearly were getting to her. 

"He told me that he wasn't going to stand by when he others were being hurt, no matter what I did or said," May continued. Even though the woman hadn't directly referenced it, M.J. was aware of what happened with Ben Parker, her late husband and Peter's uncle. He had confessed his part in the events of the night of his death to her when he explained why he had to keep doing this, even in spite of his identity being revealed. In that moment, as if she hadn't seen it in action already, M.J. could see how deeply ingrained Peter's sense of responsibility was in him...and she loved him all the more for it, even if it kept getting him into trouble. 

"I...I can't imagine ho hard that was for you," M.J. said. 

"It was hard," May admitted, "I felt so hurt that he was keeping something like this from me. But with time, I came to understand, and I also came to feel something else." 

"What?" M.J. asked, on the edge of her metaphorical seat. 

"Pride," May said, a genuine smile on her face in spite of her tears. "I was so proud of him for what he was doing, and I still am, more and more every day. Everything that's happened, all the heat he's taken these last several months especially, and yet he's still out there..." She turned to her nephew. "He still fighting to make the city, the world, a better place. I think it's thinking of that that gets me through times like this."

M.J. looked away, standing up and taking a few steps away as she pondered May's words. She too felt pride for how Peter fought for the city. She was not oblivious to how many media outlets, both controversial and normally dependable, had come to side against him, and at times it seemed like it would break him. Yet, Peter had still come out ahead, winning battle after battle in a war that was likely to last the rest of his life. 

"I'm proud of him too," M.J. said, spinning back around to May, a small smile on her lips for the first time since she'd made it to the hospital. 

May smiled back at her. "The doctors said it's up to him to fight," she said, turning to look at her nephew. "I know he is, not just for me, but for you too." 

"I sure hope so," M.J. said, her voice becoming more melancholy again. 

"I know so," May said. "I remember back before the trip to Europe, he couldn't stop talking about you, about his plan to tell you how he felt." 

M.J. found herself her cheeks warming a little all of a sudden. "Really?" she asked meekly. 

"Oh yes," May replied. "He'll probably kill you for telling you this, because he doesn't like to talk about the sacrifices he makes for others, but...do you know how he got that necklace for you?" 

M.J. reached up for the Black Dahlia necklace, the ultimate symbol of her and Peter's love, shaking her head as she played with it in her fingers. 

"Just before you guys left, he went and sold his Star Wars action figures to a local pawn shop in order to get the money," May explained. "He had had those for years, many of which Ben and I had given him for Christmas or a birthday. He actually asked my blessing on giving them away before he did."

M.J.'s smile grew wider, tears beginning to fall from her eyes, though these were of joy, not sadness. "He...he really did that?" She knew how attached he was to anything Star Wars, both from what he had told her and her years of listening in on Peter's and Ned's lunch conversations. 

May nodded her head. "He told me when he got in the car after you guys got home that it was the best decision he ever made." 

M.J. clasped her whole hand almost instinctually around the necklace. It suddenly held so much more value to her than it already did, more than she ever thought possible. 

"Thank you for telling me that, May," M.J. said. 

"Telling you what?" a familiar voice suddenly said. Peter stirred slightly as his eyes slowly opened. "May, what secrets are you giving away?" 

M.J. and May both ignored his question as they took turns greeting him, the former letting the latter giving him a hug before moving in for one of her own and planting a couple kisses on his cheek. 

"What's all the fuss about?" Peter asked, clearly still trying to gather his wits about him. "I'm not dead yet." 

M.J. laughed with May; not even a near death experience could keep that dork's sense of humor down. Most of all, she was grateful he made it out. Waiting on him wasn't easy; in fact, it was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do, but in her heart, she knew it was worth it. 

She knew it would always be worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all liked it! 
> 
> My prayers continue to go out for you all. Stay safe and healthy during this difficult and trying time. 
> 
> "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble..." Psalm 107:17-22


End file.
